


Festival of Verity

by TimeLadyoftheSith



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Confessions, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Stolen Moments, Tooth Rotting Fluff, candy floss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 19:05:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17924582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLadyoftheSith/pseuds/TimeLadyoftheSith
Summary: Rose and the Doctor are enjoying an easy day just wandering a market and sharing candy floss.





	Festival of Verity

The Doctor’s hand was laced with Rose’s, and she wondered how after three years of traveling with him the sensation was always surprising and familiar. That was just him, though. The Doctor was so familiar, but he was always surprising. The familiarity was his bodies, both the last one and this one. The surprise was his thoughts. He was over nine hundred after all, so she always got to experience new, brilliant, things.    
  
Days like this were wonderful, just them, together, strolling through the streets of some far distant planet on a festival day. As much as Rose loved the saving people and stopping bad guys, she also adored things like this. Children were running around, laughing, as adults manned booths or gossiped. The Doctor was rambling on about something to do with a particular type of cake that he’d had there once in his sixth body. Rose was listening, but she was also distracted by the jovial grin and smear of candy floss on his lower lip.    
  
He squeezed her hand lightly, looking down and reaching over to bop her nose and tell her she’s lucky she didn’t meet that body, because he’d had a tendency to burst into random song. Then he was rambling on about the time he and a former friend Evelyn had recounted their adventure on a pirate ship to one of Evelyn’s students by way of musicals. He’s been recounting a lot of his old companions all day, actually, and Rose wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t bothered, in fact she rather enjoyed the stories.    
  
He’d been more open to name dropping since the adventure with Sarah Jane, but never really going into details. Today he’d been waxing eloquent about Ace and Harry and Lucie Miller and Nyssa. It was almost as informative as reading a diary. There was just something about him that was just more relaxed today that she’d ever seen, not just with his words, but his whole demeanor. Rose was loving it. The Doctor was so happy and loose, and she hadn’t stopped smiling.    
  
“And I’m rambling more than usual. Sorry, don’t mean to yap your ear off. I’ve hardly let you get a word in all day!” The Doctor draped an arm over her shoulders, pulling her close with an apologetic smile.    
  
“Don’t be silly. I love hearin’ you talk.” Rose pressed her cheek into his long coat. “You’re talkin’ about stuff you usually don’. ‘S like listenin’ to an audio book of your happiest moments!” This earned her another squeeze. “Please, continue!”    
  
“Well, have I ever told you about the time I ended up fighting the longest word in the universe.” The Doctor burst out a laugh, and he began going into the details about how the longest word was obsessed with the word Ish. Rose loved the stories, learning more about how these people, these friends, had made him into the man with her today. She didn’t complain when he snagged the last bit of her candy floss.    
  
Rose just giggled as more of it stuck to his lower lip, as if he was completely oblivious to the speck of purple, melted and glistening in the sun as he tossed the paper cone into a nearby recycle bin. The twin suns over head were glistening off his hair, picking up the various shades of chestnut and mahogany in the chocolate, and it was sparkling off his eyes, turning the rich brown into dazzling caramel and coffee.    
  
He was so beautiful, not just outside, but inside too. His darkness didn’t scare her, when that showed on the rare occasion, because the light in his soul, the love and compassion that he put into every planet, every species, every new discovery. She loved him before, but something had changed when he sent her away a year ago on the game station, and it was different now. It was so deep, that just his presence could calm her or comfort her or drive her up the walls.    
  
The thing was, Rose was nearly sure he loved her too. Everyone said he did: Jack, Mickey, her mum, random people on random planets, and even Sarah Jane. He never said though, but his actions did. They screamed it out, when he brushed her hair back or let her have the last bite of his banana cake or simply pulled her feet in his lap when they watched movies. She could see it in his eyes in moments like these, when he paused mid sentence to grab a circlet of pink flowers from a little girl with a basket full, drop one of his endless credit sticks in the basket, and plop it one handed onto Rose’s head.    
  
The Doctor grinned at her laugh and laced their fingers again, picking up his story like he’d never stopped. Rose’s heart swelled so much she swore she was going to levitate. He was rambling on now, about stealing a moon, and that sticky, sugary, purple spot glistened again. She didn’t know what made her slow to a stop, heedless of the crowd milling around them, but Rose pulled him to a halt with her. Then she went up on her toes, never releasing his hand, and caught his lower lip between her own, tenderly erasing the berry flavored sugar from his lips. Then she sank back down, unashamed of the way he seemed utterly dazed, and squeezed his hand.    
  
“What was that for?” Rose had never seen him properly blush before, but it was slowly seeping along his cheeks, disappearing into his sideburns only to reappear at his ears.    
  
Her mind said  _ you had some melted candy floss on your lip and it was distracting. _ Her mouth said. “Because I love you.” The perfect sincerity in her words took even her by surprise. The Doctor’s eyebrows went to his hairline, as if he was unable to believe what he had heard.    
  
“I love you too.” He looked completely shocked at his own words, as he jerked slightly, and Rose felt like she was flying. “I left that spot on my lip, sorta hoping you’d want to kiss it off. I guess it worked.” Then his hand flew over his mouth, as Rose burst into giggles.    
  
“Yes it worked! All you had to do was ask, Doctor! I’ve been dyin’ to kiss you since Utah.” Rose heard herself confess although her thought response had been ‘think you’ve got more’. “Been in love with you since then too. I was jus’ too chicken to say.”    
  
“I’ve loved you since ‘there’s me.’ I just didn’t think you’d ever want someone like me.” The Doctor’s voice was soft, almost imploring, though his eyes were bewildered and stunned. “Why is my mouth saying things that I’m thinking but-“    
  
“It’s the Festival of Verity.” A woman ahead of them turned, fixing them with a wide smile. “Our goddess of honesty. The entire city gets encased in a truth field until sunrise tomorrow. Enjoy your celebrations.” She flashed them a knowing glance before disappearing.    
  
“Just like us, innit?” Rose wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s waist as he curled his around her back. “Takes a damn truth field to make us say what we really feel.”    
  
“Explains why my gob’s been nonstop today.” The Doctor hummed. Then, to Rose’s delight, he pulled her closer. “I’d usually complain about something messing in my head, but not this time.” He lowered his lips, and the crowd moving around them disappeared as she met him halfway and sealed their truth with a sigh.


End file.
